Thinking Small

Thinking big isn’t always the best approach when it comes to determining the right type of crusher that can do the job. There is an emerging need for small crushers that can get in quickly, fit into tight areas, and crush a few thousand tons or less of material on site.

Joe Logan, president, Logan Aggregate Recycling Inc., Richmond, Va., says he recognized a need in his market for small-scale, on-site recycling. About a year ago, he decided to purchase one of the small, tracked models for his business – one with a throughput of approximately 120 tons per hour.

It turned out to be a smart decision. According to Logan, he had 15,000 tons of work already lined up before the crusher had even been delivered. “Our crusher can do everything a bigger crusher can do in a smaller package,” he explains.
 

SMALL ADVANTAGES
Small mobile or portable crushers can’t produce as much as their larger counterparts, but there are benefits to using a small crusher. A small crusher can be a portable model brought on a trailer or a tracked model. They may not be able to crush 20,000 tons per day like a large crusher, but they do have advantages in set up, maneuverability, and cost. “

The [tracked] units are handy because not only can they move with the piles with whatever is on the site, it can crush and screen to a size that is reusable for everything from backfill to road base on the very same property that is going to be redone,” says Stu Gamble, who leads the crushing and screening team for Sandvik in the U.S. and Canada.

By contrast, a large crusher can take a full day to set up and may require a crane in the process. It can also, according to Gamble, take seven days to obtain a permit to transport a large crusher and can cost an estimated $20,000 to rent. These factors make it difficult for some larger crushers to respond to the niche market, according to some dealers in the crushing business. On the other hand, small mobile crushers can be transported on a trailer or lowboy and ready to crush in 20 to 30 minutes.

Joe Szany, director of sales and marketing for Loxley, Ala.-based Ecovery LLC, says with a small crusher, “You could get done with a job before a big machine could [even] set up.”

He recalls having one of his company’s crushers at a trade show in Las Vegas last year when a prospect based in Los Angeles approached him about using it. The crusher was hauled out to the site on an F250 pickup truck and running that same afternoon, he says.

Szany admits the Guidetti models Ecovery offers aren’t the answer for everyone, but it gives contractors a choice. The contractor evaluates the need based on economics or the conditions at the job site.

Szany adds that hauling off-site has become too expensive, especially when compared to using a small crusher to recycle on site. “It makes no sense to haul off big chunks and then haul in a base when you can set it right back down [using a crusher at the site],” he says.

Gary Smith is president of Tualatin, Ore.-based Construction Equipment Co. (CEC), which manufactures and sells both track-mounted and portable crushers. He says track-mounted units make sense in certain situations, such as when material is spread over a large location and there are small deposits of material in multiple locations.

“It may make sense to take the crusher to the small pile than to take the piles all together to one central crusher,” he explains.

Sean Donaghy, sales manager of IROCK Crushers LLC, Oakwood Village, Ohio, says set-up time is important because the longer it takes to set up, the more it cuts into profits. “Contract crushers get paid by the ton so they need to be on the job and running ASAP,” he says.
 

SHOPPING CONSIDERATIONS
Contractors or recyclers shopping for a small crusher need to consider many factors in order to select the right one. According to D.J. Cavaliere, operations manager for COR Equipment Sales, Stamford, Conn., customers should calculate how much their company is spending per year on dumping material at a facility and how much recycled or virgin material they are purchasing back per year. This calculation, once compared to the cost of owning a crusher, “is an eye-opener,” he says.

Gerry Mangrich of Universal Engineering Corp., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, says a major factor to consider when determining the right crusher to use at a job site is prep work.

“After you settle on an acceptable cost of prep work and know your target feed size, you can then shop for the appropriate crusher,” he says, adding, “Quite often it’s the feed opening, not the rated capacity of the crusher that becomes the deciding factor.”

The mobility of the unit is also a factor that may trump capacity, according to Mangrich. “Many contractors find themselves looking for the system that allows the largest feed size and will set up in the smallest space possible.”
 

LIMITED SPACE
Mobile crushers tend to be used in urban areas like the East Coast as well as in Europe where space is limited and roadways aren’t as able to handle heavy machinery.

But in other regions, smaller crushers aren’t as popular. Bill Royce, who handles unit sales for Eagle Crusher in the Midwest, Canadian, and government markets, says that since space isn’t as much of a consideration in those areas, large crushers are still the norm.

Cost also factors into the equation and Royce says a smaller crusher that can only crush 100 tons per hour can eat profits when you compare volume.

“You’ve got to be able to get production out. Production has always been the name of the game,” he says.

Royce admits there is still a need in some situations to bring in something smaller. “If the job has a small footprint, the job requires a non-spec material, and if it is a very small amount of material to be processed, I can see some advantage to having a small crusher,” he says.

Space or weight could be a constraint depending on the job site that would make it feasible to bring in a small crusher. For example, a large crusher might crush a sidewalk faster, but it would cause much more disruption to the neighborhood.

One drawback to a small-track mounted unit, according to Donaghy and IROCK general manager Robert Nelson, can be the separate components necessary to off big chunks and then haul in a base when you can set it right back down [using a crusher at the site],” he says.

Gary Smith is president of Tualatin, Ore.-based Construction Equipment Co. (CEC), which manufactures and sells both track-mounted and portable crushers. He says track-mounted units make sense in certain situations, such as when material is spread over a large location and there are small deposits of material in multiple locations.

“It may make sense to take the crusher to the small pile than to take the piles all together to one central crusher,” he explains.

Sean Donaghy, sales manager of IROCK Crushers LLC, Oakwood Village, Ohio, says set-up time is important because the longer it takes to set up, the more it cuts into profits. “Contract crushers get paid by the ton so they need to be on the job and running ASAP,” he says.

SHOPPING CONSIDERATIONS
Contractors or recyclers shopping for a small crusher need to consider many factors in order to select the right one. According to D.J. Cavaliere, operations manager for COR Equipment Sales, Stamford, Conn., customers should calculate how much their company is spending per year on dumping material at a facility and how much recycled or virgin material they are purchasing back per year. This calculation, once compared to the cost of owning a crusher, “is an eye-opener,” he says.

Track-mounted crushers are often used in urban areas and situations where the crusher can be brought to multiple piles of material to crush.

Gerry Mangrich of Universal Engineering Corp., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, says a major factor to consider when determining the right crusher to use at a job site is prep work.

“After you settle on an acceptable cost of prep work and know your target feed size, you can then shop for the appropriate crusher,” he says, adding, “Quite often it’s the feed opening, not the rated capacity of the crusher that becomes the deciding factor.”

The mobility of the unit is also a factor that may trump capacity, according to Mangrich. “Many contractors find themselves looking for the system that allows the largest feed size and will set up in the smallest space possible.”
 

LIMITED SPACE
Mobile crushers tend to be used in urban areas like the East Coast as well as in Europe where space is limited and roadways aren’t as able to handle heavy machinery.

But in other regions, smaller crushers aren’t as popular. Bill Royce, who handles unit sales for Eagle Crusher in the Midwest, Canadian, and government markets, says that since space isn’t as much of a consideration in those areas, large crushers are still the norm.

Cost also factors into the equation and Royce says a smaller crusher that can only crush 100 tons per hour can eat profits when you compare volume.

“You’ve got to be able to get production out. Production has always been the name of the game,” he says.

Royce admits there is still a need in some situations to bring in something smaller. “If the job has a small footprint, the job requires a non-spec material, and if it is a very small amount of material to be processed, I can see some advantage to having a small crusher,” he says.

Space or weight could be a constraint depending on the job site that would make it feasible to bring in a small crusher. For example, a large crusher might crush a sidewalk faster, but it would cause much more disruption to the neighborhood.

One drawback to a small-track mounted unit, according to Donaghy and IROCK general manager Robert Nelson, can be the separate components necessary to.

Additionally, he says, the tracked crusher could convey into a pair of portable conveyors which could be repositioned to feed the screen while the tracked crusher maneuvers around the pile.

A typical small mobile crusher requires one or two people to operate. If it is operated by remote control, the person loading the machine may be the only person working on it.

While a small crusher can run with one person, Cavaliere strongly recommends an extra set of eyes at all times. “I don’t look at what it costs to have an extra person to be at the crusher; I look at what it will cost us not to have them.”
 

DOUBLING UP
There may be situations where two small crushers are brought to a job site. In New York City, Cavaliere says COR had two track-mounted crushers working on the Deutsche Bank demolition site at the World Trade Center site. Since there were no areas outside of the building, the crushers were set up in a basement during the demolition process. “It was much more efficient to crush inside,” he says.

Some equipment manufacturers say bringing two small crushers to a site makes sense if the site is too small for the larger machine. Others point out that when you bring in two crushers, it doubles the expense.

Paul Smith, crushing and screening product manager of Johnson Crushers International, Eugene, Ore. (part of the Astec company KPI-JCI), says that in hard rock with abrasive conditions, two or more compression crushers can still yield a lower operation cost than a single impact crusher. Cavaliere says two mobile crushers at a job site would be a viable option if the site is large enough and material is stockpiled on each end or under a tight deadline.
 

Quick set-up time can be an advantage of using a small crushing unit on a job site.

MAINTENANCE IS KEY
Crushing equipment manufacturers and dealers agree that regular maintenance is important. Gamble says most small crushers need a daily check for minor issues and will require minor maintenance every 80 to 160 hours. Every 500 hours, he says major maintenance will need to be performed. This can include changing jaws, flipping the bars in an impactor or changing screens.

Gamble adds that there will be wear factors. “You might have to check the belt for tears, change filters, and maintain the motor.”

Every morning, Logan’s crew performs a visual inspection of the crusher. They will check the oil and inspect the hammers inside the impact crusher. Between the cleaning and the checking, Logan estimates there are 20 to 30 minutes of daily maintenance. He says he receives about 6,000 tons of production out of one set of impact-style hammers. Once a week, his crew greases the whole crusher. He says it is easy to maintain because it doesn’t require a crane or an air compressor like larger crushers might.

“The smaller size makes it easier to handle. You can get to everything and you can do everything with hand tools,” he says. “In a week’s time, I am able to do everything on the crusher.”

KPI-JCI’s Smith estimates that a strong preventive maintenance program can yield better than 90 percent uptime versus 10 percent addressing maintenance issues. “Track units will require different types of maintenance such as more emphasis on hydraulic and engine components, but the same level of uptime can be achieved,” he says.
 

HOW SMALL IS TOO SMALL?
Many in the crushing business don’t foresee mobile crushers getting any smaller than they already are. Anything below 30 cubic yards per hour would not yield a profit, they say. Gamble puts it this way, “You can’t make enough money on that product to justify the payment at the end of the day.”

CEC has not had much luck developing anything smaller than 100-125 tons per hour because according to Smith it wouldn’t be economical. A 30-cubic-yard-per-hour machine, he says, would only end up being fractionally less expensive than one that can crush 100 tons per hour because it would still need to be built to maintain a certain level of durability.

Jouni Hulttinen, product manager of Compact Lokotracks at Metso Mineral Industries thinks that 30 cubic yards of production is the lower limit. He gives an example of a smaller crusher attached to an excavator boom is as one way a smaller throughput could work. Logan says he thinks that crushers of that size could be used for inside jobs.
 

‘SMALL’ MINDED
CEC’s Smith has seen retraction in the market for small crushers. “Right now the demand for on-site crushing for developing housing lots is very soft, so the demand in that size is very weak,” he remarks, noting the situation will eventually turn around.

Some in the business say that it still may take some time before more contractors get on board with small crushing units. Szany observes, “I don’t think they have caught on in America as fast as manufacturers thought they would. America thinks big. When it comes to construction equipment, they think bigger is better.”

Gamble hopes that attitude will change, “I think people need to stay open-minded about why portables are out there. They have their place,” he says.